On expansion course: Amazon's Zoox tests robotaxis in Dallas and Phoenix
Following San Francisco and Las Vegas, Amazon subsidiary Zoox is further expanding its robotaxi offering. The company is now present in ten US metropolises.
(Image: Zoox)
US robotaxi company Zoox is expanding and strengthening its presence in the competitive US market. The Amazon subsidiary is extending its tests to Dallas and Phoenix and opening a headquarters for fleet operations in the US state of Arizona. Zoox announced this on Monday.
With the two major cities of Dallas and Phoenix, the Zoox test fleet is now active in ten different US markets. The company has gradually expanded its activities and last year launched its autonomous taxi service in San Francisco and in the casino metropolis of Las Vegas. In addition, there are the locations Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.
Since the launch of the service in Las Vegas and the test operation in San Francisco at the end of last year, Zoox has covered over one million autonomous miles and transported more than 300,000 passengers, according to its own figures.
Gathering new data
The expansion of the test fleet to Dallas and Phoenix underscores the company's drive for expansion. "Phoenix and Dallas are rapidly growing metropolitan areas with high demand for ride services and first and last mile connections. Expanding into these cities allows us to test in sprawling areas and thus gather data that differs from our tests in other densely populated metropolitan areas like San Francisco," Zoox writes in a press release. In Phoenix, they have the opportunity to test the performance of sensors and batteries under extreme heat and dust conditions on expressways; Dallas, in turn, offers the opportunity to further develop their AI under different weather conditions and in complex road networks.
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Zoox plans to deploy a small number of retrofitted SUVs in Phoenix and Dallas, according to its own statements. The focus will initially be on manual mapping before autonomous tests begin, with a safety driver at the wheel who can intervene at any time and deactivate the AI if necessary. The robotaxi provider will also open new depots in both cities, as well as put a new Fusion Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, into operation, which is intended to serve as a command center for fleet operations, dispatch, and driver support, it is stated.
(akn)
